Collaborate with Helminthix
Helminthix is designed to bring together science, technology and translational partnerships so helminth drug discovery can move faster and with greater confidence.
There are two ways to connect with Helminthix. Personal membership is open to individuals with a strong interest in helminths, neglected tropical diseases, AI-enabled discovery, parasitology, public health, drug development, clinical trials or aligned fields. Organisational collaboration is for companies, universities, hospitals, laboratories, programmes, funders and other institutions that want to explore a formal working relationship with Helminthix.
What collaboration means
We work with assay partners, drug discovery teams, translational scientists and funders to create a shared track for parasite-targeted therapeutics. Collaboration is not just visibility; it is active data-sharing, joint decision-making and aligned progress toward early pipeline milestones.
Membership and organisational collaboration are different
Personal membership is for people. Any individual who is aligned with the Helminthix vision and has a serious interest in combatting helminth disease can request to join the member network. Members can create a profile, search for other members and share interests or capabilities with the community.
Organisational collaborators join through their organisation. This is the route for a company, university, hospital, laboratory, eradication programme, funder or consortium that wants to discuss shared projects, data generation, assay partnerships, AI drug discovery, translational development or funding strategy with Helminthix.
How we partner
- Assay labs provide functional readouts for worm viability, motility, development and resistance risk.
- Discovery platforms contribute target nomination, compound triage and early medicinal chemistry insight.
- Translational teams support pharmacology, target validation and pipeline de-risking.
- Funders and sponsors help focus resources on the most promising challenge-driven portfolios.
Why this is different
Helminthix is built to reduce fragmentation. We aim to connect the right biology, chemistry and assays so programmes can make purposeful progress, rather than producing isolated reports or disconnected experimental data.
Ready to join?
If you are joining as an individual, start with the member site. If you are contacting us on behalf of an organisation, use the contact pathway to tell us about your capability, interest and possible collaboration route. We want to hear from groups offering assay capacity, helminth biology expertise, AI-enabled discovery chemistry, clinical or implementation capacity, funding or translational development support.
Organisations working in the field
DNDi
Product-development partnership for neglected diseases, including filarial and helminth drug-development work.
Helminth Elimination Platform (HELP)
EU Horizon 2020 consortium, funded to September 2024, that brought partners together around anthelmintic R&D for onchocerciasis and soil-transmitted helminth infections.
University of Buea
Cameroon-based university with tropical-disease and filariasis research, including Onchocerca ochengi models relevant to onchocerciasis drug testing.
University Hospital Bonn IMMIP
Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology with filarial disease, Wolbachia biology and anti-Wolbachia drug-development expertise.
Ifakara Health Institute
Tanzanian health research institute with clinical-trial, implementation and endemic-region research capacity relevant to neglected tropical diseases.
Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle
French research and museum institution with parasitology expertise, including filarial biology and preclinical parasite-testing work.
Elanco Animal Health
Animal-health company linked to HELP through Bayer Animal Health, with veterinary antiparasitic and compound-library relevance for anthelmintic discovery.
Bristol Myers Squibb / Celgene Global Health
Celgene Global Health, now part of Bristol Myers Squibb, contributed neglected-disease compound expertise to the HELP consortium before contractual termination in 2021.
SEtTReND
European Commission FP7-supported research consortium linking schistosome molecular biology and drug discovery, focused on histone-modifying enzymes as targets for new schistosomiasis treatments.
Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium
Public-private partnership developing and enabling access to paediatric praziquantel for preschool-aged children with schistosomiasis.
Unlimit Health
Formerly SCI Foundation; supports elimination programmes for schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis.
Global Schistosomiasis Alliance
Coalition working to mobilise action toward schistosomiasis control and elimination.
WHO Neglected Tropical Diseases
Global policy, guidance and disease-area information for NTD control, elimination and eradication.
Swiss TPH Helminth Research and Medicines
Translational helminth drug discovery and clinical development unit with extensive parasite models and field trial experience.
LSTM Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases
Filarial disease, Wolbachia and NTD research centre with strong translational links.
WormBase ParaSite
Community genomics infrastructure for parasitic helminths, including genome browsing, annotation, orthology and gene-family data.
Medicines Development for Global Health
Non-profit medicine developer responsible for moxidectin development and implementation pathways for onchocerciasis and other neglected diseases.
LSHTM NTD Network
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine network connecting NTD research, control, mapping and implementation expertise, including helminth infections.
London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research
London-based NTD research partnership spanning LSHTM, Imperial College London, the Natural History Museum and the Royal Veterinary College.
One Health Trust
One Health policy, economics and infectious-disease organisation relevant to resistance, animal-human health links and sustainable treatment systems.
Mectizan Donation Program
Long-running ivermectin donation and access programme supporting onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis elimination.
The END Fund
Financing and implementation organisation supporting country-led control and elimination of intestinal worms, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis and river blindness.
AI drug discovery
Bayer
AI-enabled pharma company with an active emodepside programme for river blindness through DNDi, plus work with Swiss TPH on soil-transmitted helminths.
Merck & Co. / MSD
Uses data science, AI and machine learning across discovery and development; has the long-running Mectizan ivermectin programme and Merck Animal Health dewormer brands such as SAFE-GUARD.
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
Develops AI drug-discovery tools and generative chemistry partnerships; leads the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium for arpraziquantel in paediatric schistosomiasis.
GSK
Runs a major AI and machine-learning R&D capability; supplies albendazole for lymphatic filariasis elimination and soil-transmitted helminth deworming programmes.
Boehringer Ingelheim
Applies AI, analytics, computational biology and quantum-computing approaches in R&D; animal-health portfolio includes NexGard PLUS, HEARTGARD PLUS and cattle dewormer products.
Zoetis
Animal-health company using generative AI in drug discovery and AI-powered diagnostics; parasiticide and anthelmintic portfolio includes products such as DECTOMAX V.
Elanco
Animal-health company with data-driven R&D, computational biology interests and a parasiticide pipeline; products include Interceptor Plus, Credelio Plus and Credelio Quattro.
Johnson & Johnson / Janssen
Uses AI tools in lead generation and drug discovery; Janssen is historically linked to the FDA-approved mebendazole brand VERMOX, with current availability varying by market.
Research labs working in the field
Karl Hoffmann lab, Aberystwyth University
Schistosome and fluke functional genomics, parasite viability and phenotype analysis, drug and vaccine target discovery.
Klaus Brehm lab, University of Würzburg
Echinococcus genomics, stem-cell biology, host-parasite signalling and anti-echinococcosis chemotherapy.
Jennifer Keiser / Swiss TPH
Helminth drug discovery and development, in vitro and in vivo compound testing, preclinical studies and endemic-country clinical trials.
Conor Caffrey, UC San Diego
Schistosomiasis, hookworm and antiparasitic drug discovery using target validation, screening platforms and translational models.
Mark Taylor, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Filarial nematodes, Wolbachia biology and anti-Wolbachia drug development through CNTD and A·WOL.
Achim Hörauf, University Hospital Bonn
Filarial disease, Wolbachia-targeted macrofilaricidal therapy, diagnostics and tropical medicine.
Marc Hübner, University Hospital Bonn
Preclinical testing of new therapies for filarial nematodes, immune responses and translational filariasis models.
Sabine Specht, DNDi
Filarial disease drug-development leadership, clinical trial design and translational helminth R&D.
Matt Berriman group, University of Glasgow
Parasite comparative and functional genomics across schistosomes, tapeworms, whipworms, threadworms and hookworms.
Alan Tracey, Wellcome Sanger Institute
Genome reference informatics and helminth genome assembly/curation expertise.
Makedonka Mitreva lab, Washington University in St. Louis
Helminth genomics, multi-omics, machine learning and experimental validation for neglected tropical diseases.
Mara Rosenzvit / BMHid, IMPaM-CONICET
Molecular biology of hydatid disease and cestode development, including Echinococcus and related tapeworm systems.
Richard Martin, Iowa State University
Nematode ion-channel pharmacology, anthelmintic mechanisms and resistance biology.
Paul Sternberg lab, Caltech
Nematode systems biology, genomics and parasite-relevant biology, including development, behaviour and host-finding biology in parasitic nematode systems.
These links are provided as a field map. Inclusion does not imply a formal collaboration, endorsement, or partnership with Helminthix.